Technology

Netflix is launching a new free Android mobile plan in Kenya that will allow users to watch a limited selection of its catalog, including full seasons of select shows. Netflix announced that beginning this week, the new ad-free Netflix mobile plan for Android gives users the option to sign up without having to enter any payment information (though they’ll need to verify that they’re 18 or older and will still need to submit an email address to create a login). Netflix hopes users will upgrade to a paid subscription A Netflix spokesperson confirmed to The Verge that it’s the first time the streamer has offered a free tier. Roughly a quarter of its library will be included in the free plan, and users on this tier will be able to watch entire seasons of shows. Netflix said it hopes that users...

Comcast appears to be planning to offer TVs running its own software across at least two territories, according to recent reports from Protocol and The Financial Times. In the US, the TVs will reportedly be branded as XClass TVs. Originally manufactured by Hisense, the 43 and 50-inch sets will run Comcast’s X1 operating system, which is already found on its set-top boxes and Xfinity Flex streaming box. An Xfinity landing site confirms the “XClass TV” branding, while an FAQ spotted by Protocol says they’ll aggregate “your favorite apps, live channels, and On Demand movies and shows together in one place.” “Apps, live channels, and On Demand movies and shows together in one place” Meanwhile in the UK, Comcast subsidiary Sky is reportedly planning to launch smart TVs of its own. The FT’s repo...

To mark the International Week of the Deaf, Snapchat has created custom stickers and three AR Lenses to encourage users to fingerspell, the company said Tuesday. The new features were designed by incorporating feedback and guidance from deaf and hard-of-hearing employees at the company, and using AI and computer vision technology developed by Hungarian startup SignAll, which focuses on technology for deaf people. SignAll has developed technology that can be used to track hand movements to translate sign language into spoken language. The company launched fingerspelling mobile app Ace ASL for iOS in April, and for Android earlier this month. The new Snap features were also driven internally by Snap Lab software engineer Jennica Pounds, who is deaf. Pounds said her oldest son has had a hard ...

General Motors said Monday that it will start swapping new batteries into Chevy Bolt EVs in October in response to at least a dozen fires that triggered a massive recall. GM did not say when it will restart production of brand new versions of the electric car. The news comes as LG is once again making batteries for the Bolt after stopping in August. GM says it worked closely with the South Korean conglomerate to make sure the new cells are free of defects that have led to at lest a dozen fires in the automaker’s electric vehicle and a massive recall. Owners of older Bolts (model years 2017 to 2019) will have all the modules in their battery packs swapped for new ones. Owners of newer models may only get individual modules changed out, GM said. Battery swaps will start in October GM said Mo...

Crypto exchange Coinbase has discontinued its plans to launch a Lend feature designed to let customers earn interest on certain coins as reported by Bloomberg. The company announced the change by updating a blog post from late June, saying that it would also be discontinuing the waitlist that it had set up for the feature. The cancellation comes after Coinbase received legal warnings about the feature from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Earlier this month, Coinbase said that it would be delaying the now-canceled feature “until at least October.” Coinbase promised that the Lend feature would offer users a 4 percent APY return if they let the company make loans to “verified borrowers” with it. The company planned to the stablecoin USDC to power the feature, but its price hasn’t been...

With the International Space Station set to retire by the end of the decade, NASA is already looking at options to turn the ISS into a private destination for future travelers. According to CNBC, NASA is currently turning to companies to evaluate proposals on how to turn the ISS into a private space station that would potentially help them save more than $1 billion USD per year. Phil McAlister, NASA’s director of commercial spaceflight has confirmed that the agency has already “received roughly about a dozen proposals” from different companies, hoping to be contracted for the project. McAlister comments on the nature of the projects sharing, “We are making tangible progress on developing commercial space destinations where people can work, play and live.” Earlier this year, NASA revealed t...

A man has now been sentenced to 12 years in prison by a U.S. District Court after illegally unlocking 1.9 million AT&T phones over the span of seven years, causing the telecoms company to lose upwards of $200 million USD. According to reports, a Pakistan and Grenada citizen by the name of Muhammed Fahd first began his operations in 2012 when he reached out to an AT&T employee via Facebook, bribing them to unlock his customers’ phones with “significant sums of money.” At the time, he also asked the bribed employee to recruit his colleagues as a call center in Washington to join the scheme. In 2013, AT&T increased security measures and made it more difficult for employees to unlock IMEIs. Not letting this stop him, Fahd recruited an engineer who helped him build malware that was ...

Apple on Monday released its latest iPhone operating system, iOS 15, to pair with new features in its updated iPhone, iPad and Watch lineup. iOS 15 offers several key new features to enhance the iPhone user experience and widen communications capabilities across Apple devices: FaceTime received a boost with the introduction of SharePlay, which allows parties to watch TV shows and movies, listen to music or share their screen while chatting over FaceTime. Notably, the function offers synced playback controls so that both parties can react to shared moments at the same time. Apple also rolled out spatial audio for FaceTime calls, which allows individual voices to sound like they’re coming from the direction in which they’re positioned on the screen, helping conversations to flow more natural...

Senate Democrats are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to write new rules to protect consumer data privacy in a new letter to the agency authored on Monday. The letter, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and signed by eight other Democratic senators, was sent to FTC Chair Lina Khan Monday, calling on the agency to “begin a rulemaking process” on privacy. Specifically, the senators are requesting that the FTC pen new rules addressing privacy, civil rights, and the collection of consumer data. “Consumer privacy has become a consumer crisis” “Consumer privacy has become a consumer crisis,” the lawmakers wrote. “Tech companies have routinely broken their promises to consumers and neglected their legal obligations, only to receive wrist-slap punishments after long delay, providing litt...

Tom Hanks is set to return to Apple TV Plus in Finch, a soon-to-debut feature film about a robotics engineer surviving a new post-apocalyptic world with his four-legged companion Goodyear (and a robot). The heart of Finch’s storyline centers on Hanks’ determination to find a caretaker for Goodyear after his death. The science-fiction drama takes place after a solar flare that devastated life on earth. Finch, the engineer, has been surviving a post-apocalyptic wasteland for a decade in an underground bunker, where he lives with his dog Goodyear — a very good boy and Finch’s only companion after the catastrophic event. In this underground workspace, Finch develops a robot, Jeff, with whom they’ll embark on a treacherous journey to beat a deadly storm to safety. Along the way, they’ll have to...

September 22nd officially marks the first day of fall, and with it gadget season. Like in previous years, Microsoft is getting into the mix with its forthcoming Surface event, where we anticipate the company will announce a slew of products during its livestream presentation on Wednesday at 11AM ET / 8AM PT. Microsoft has been building up plenty of momentum recently with the impending launch of Windows 11. And with the new operating system set to launch on October 5th, it’s only natural to showcase it with new devices. The reports and leaks seem to indicate that we may see updates to Microsoft’s Surface Pro, Surface Book, Surface Go, and Surface Duo lines. Many details of the Surface Pro 8 have already leaked, including its new Intel 11th Gen processor, 120Hz display, and switch to Thunder...